Systems and methods for detecting and presenting textural information from medical images

1. A medical imaging system comprising: an imaging transducer assembly configured to emit one or more energy pulses and receive one or more echo signals, each having a magnitude level; a console coupled to the imaging transducer assembly and configured to receive the one or more echo signals, generate one or more images based on the one or more echo signals, compress the one or more images into one or more compressed images, and add auditory information to the one or more compressed images based on the magnitude levels of the one or more images before compression.

2. The medical imaging system of claim 1 , wherein the compression of the one or more images comprises log compression.

3. The medical imaging system of claim 2 , wherein the console is configured to add auditory information to the one or more log compressed images based on one or more combinations of magnitude levels of the one or more images before compression.

4. The medical imaging system of claim 1 , wherein the imaging transducer assembly has an axis and is configured to rotate on its axis, and wherein the imaging transducer assembly emits energy pulses and receives one or more echo signals while rotating on its axis.

5. The medical imaging system of claim 4 , further comprising a control that permits the operator to change the auditory signal assigned to a magnitude level.

6. The medical imaging system of claim 1 , wherein the imaging transducer assembly is an ultrasound transducer assembly.

7. The medical imaging system of claim 1 , wherein the auditory information is added based on one or more combinations of magnitude levels of the one or more images before compression.

8. The medical imaging system of claim 1 , further comprising a control that permits the operator to change the auditory signal assigned to a magnitude level.

9. The medical imaging system of claim 1 , wherein the magnitude levels are time varying.

10. A method for generating a medical image comprising the steps of: assigning an auditory signal to each of a plurality of magnitude levels; receiving one or more echo signals reflected from body tissue, each having a magnitude level; generating an image having one or more lines, wherein each line corresponds to one of the one or more echo signals; compressing the image into a compressed image; and adding one or more auditory signals corresponding to the one or more lines of the compressed image based on the magnitude levels of the one or more lines of the image before compression.

11. The method of claim 10 , wherein the one or more lines are one or more radial lines.

12. The method of claim 10 , wherein the one or more lines are one or more vectors.

13. The method of claim 10 , wherein the echo signals are ultrasound echo signals.

14. The method of claim 10 , wherein compressing the image comprises log compressing the image.

15. The method of claim 10 further comprising changing an auditory signal assigned to a magnitude level.

16. A method for evaluating an ultrasound image comprising the steps of: reviewing a compressed ultrasound image having one or more lines, each line corresponding to an echo signal reflected from body tissue; selecting a portion of the compressed ultrasound image; and generating an auditory signal corresponding to the selected portion of the compressed ultrasound image, wherein the auditory signal is based on a magnitude level of the selected portion of the ultrasound image before compression of the ultrasound image, and wherein the audio signal is added to the ultrasound image after compression of the ultrasound image.

17. The method of claim 16 , wherein the selected portion of the compressed image is log compressed.